Technical Handbrake

[Edgie70]

Hi all , I had some rest pads fitted a while ago but over a period of time the amount of lift when I pull the handbrake on has increased ( amount of clicks ) I always thought that it would auto adjust like what the pads do ?????

 

[varesecrazy]

Hi.

Nope.. pads are just fluid..

The rear drum brakes have springs pulling them in.. braking effort pushes out- but springs will pull them back in

To compensate for wear there is a 'threaded rod' style 'auto adjuster'

But they are easily jammed up.. brake dust etc

Look at the post from levemircento

 

[Edgie70]

Hi , mine has rear calipers not drum brakes .

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

As you say, should take up play automatically.

Do I understand it all felt Ok immediately after the pads were renewed but has slowly got worse as the pads have "settled in"?

Has the pedal feel changed? has the stroke increased at all?

The pistons would have been wound back into the calipers to accommodate the new pads and sometimes it's necessary to disconnect the cables to allow this to happen. Perhaps the cable/s were not "seated" correctly when refitted and have now done so as a result of being worked? It's also not unusual for rear calipers to suffer corrosion which can lead to all manor of problems. I had to renew one of the rear calipers on my daughter in law's Jazz this year because it started jamming up a few days after I fitted new pads.

 

[varesecrazy]

Hi , mine has rear calipers not drum brakes .

Ok..

I didnt know what rest pads referred to ..

Ok so hydraulic handbrakes..

The calipers have a mechanism that 'keeps.up' with pad wear..

When you change pads.. you need to Rotate the piston..as well as compress it

Its possible at some point this has failed


Jock answered this too

 

[AndyRKett]

Highly likely with all fiat's that the cables to the rear brakes have stretched. If so you can adjust the handbrake by taking the centre console apart and tightening the nut on the back of the hand brake lever which tightens the cables.

 

[varesecrazy]

Centre console just lifts.. clipped into floor

Start at the rear

Easy enough in my 07

My 2012 appears identical (same dash as your Evo)

 

[AndyRKett]

Easy enough in my 07

I’m guessing you don’t have an arm rest, that makes things much more complicated/a massive pain in the arse

 

[varesecrazy]

Correct.. not had an armrest since a Lampredi motor
And a Digital dash

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Highly likely with all fiat's that the cables to the rear brakes have stretched. If so you can adjust the handbrake by taking the centre console apart and tightening the nut on the back of the hand brake lever which tightens the cables.

Absolutely Andy but can I just caution that, as I'm sure most of us know, the cables should be tightened only enough to JUST pull the caliper levers off their stops. Any more and the self adjusting function will be disabled. If you adjust too much you'll briefly get a very good feeling hand brake but it won't last.

 

[Edgie70]

Hi all , thanks for your replies , when they were fitted they just pulled a pad out and turned piston in a bit and put new pads in , can't quite remember how the handbrake felt after that but I do remember that I've adjusted the handbrake cable ta take up some adjustment but now the travel has increased

 

[Edgie70]

Pugglt Auld Jock I might slacken the cable adjustment off

 

[Edgie70]

Right , I've slackened right off the adjustment and tightened it so that the lever in the car has very little free movement , and basically the handbrake still comes up about 6 clicks to hold the car on a slight hill , weird eh ...also the foot brake actually feels better but that might be just a pseudo effect lol I'll leave it until it needs rear pads again and get it properly sorted then , cheers

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Hi Edgie. Comes up 6 clicks? Think about this for a minute. Back in the days when hand/rear brakes were not self adjusting it was common to adjust the rear brake linings with the manual adjuster until the shoes were just dragging on the drum and then adjust the handbrake until, typically, the lever would come up 3 clicks. Now though we have self adjusters which require the hand brake levers (at the wheels) - be it disc caliper or drum type - to be just a "smidgeon" off their resting stop. This is necessary for the self adjusting mechanisms (and there's more than one type) to return to the position where they can engage with the next "segment" of the self adjuster's ratchet mechanism (for simplicity think of it as a ratchet, like on a ratchet in your tool kit. Although there are other types.) If the cable is tightened too much the lever will not return far enough to "catch" the next tooth on the ratchet so the self adjuster stops self adjusting. Because of this you invariably find that hand brakes these days often pull up further than was previously thought to be acceptable. Factor a wee bit of wear into the cables, clevis pins, and other bits and pieces and your 6 clicks may not be too outrageous at all!

If you've got the cable/s adjusted so the levers at the wheels are just off their rests and the cables look to be in good order with no obvious wear in other parts and the hand brake is holding well on an incline, then that's probably as good as it's going to get. Don't be too obsessed with trying to achieve a very short "pull up" on the lever.

 

[Edgie70]

Hi , thanks for your reply , basically I've now got it so the little bit of lift in the h/b lever has gone and the amount of clicks is the same as it was when I had tightened the cable up so the auto adjust must be working , it's pulling equally off the stops on both sides and it's resting against the stops on both sides too so both sides are moving , I've attached 2 pics , one off the stop one on , both sides are the same , they're wet due to wd40 lol

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

looks good to me!

 

[Edgie70]

Brill , thanks for your help